David Cameron is “gravely concerned” by the ongoing crisis in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing Executive, a Downing Street spokesperson has said.
Yesterday Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson resigned following tensions surrounding the murder of ex-IRA member Kevin McGuigan Sr in Belfast last month.
Bobby Storey, Sinn Fein's chairman in Northern Ireland, and two other senior republicans have been arrested in connection with the killing.
That led to claims by the DUP that Sinn Fein had broken the terms of the Stormont House Agreement rejecting all forms of paramilitary violence.
Sinn Fein has rejected any link to the killing and insisted the Provisional IRA had “gone” and was “not coming back”.
Yesterday evening a Downing Street spokesperson sought to reiterate the Prime Minister’s belief that “intensive cross-party talks” were needed to help resolve the crisis.
He also stood by his assertion in a conversation with Robinson that emergency legislation should not be introduced to suspend the Northern Ireland Executive.
"The prime minister is gravely concerned about the situation in Northern Ireland following developments there today,” the spokesperson said.
“The government objective is clear: we want to work with political leaders for a Northern Ireland where politics works, the economy grows and which is no longer defined by its divided past but by its shared future.”
Yesterday an attempt by the DUP to adjourn the Northern Ireland Assembly was defeated by Sinn Fein and the SDLP.
DUP leader Mr Robinson said: “We have tried to created space to allow the critical unresolved issues to be dealt with in a structured manner…
“The failure of the SDLP and Sinn Fein to implement the Stormont House Agreement together with the assessment from the chief constable of the involvement of the IRA in a murder, the continued existence if the IRA structures and the arrest that followed, has pushed devolution to the brink.”
He declared: “In light of the decision by republicans, nationalists and the Ulster Unionist Party to continue with business as usual in the assembly, I am therefore standing aside as first minister.”